P-I archive: Memorial Stadium memorial wall

Garfield graduate Marianne Hanson dedicating the Memorial Stadium wall for Seattle Public Schools students killed in World War II, 1951. (Seattlepi.com file)

Today from the Seattlepi.com archive, we share photos of the memorial wall at Seattle’s Memorial Stadium.

Sorting through photos for today’s gallery on Garfield and Roosevelt high schools – a gallery with dozens of photos can be viewed here – we found a photo of the wall being dedicated by Garfield graduate Marianne Hanson.

She designed it and unveiled the memorial shortly in 1951. See a larger version of that photo here.

In May 2006, Hanson returned to the memorial wall for a story written by P-I reporter Kathy Mulady. That photo is below. Read the story here.

For more than two decades, veteran and activist Guy Gallipeau has protested the demolition of the stadium, dedicated in 1947 where Civic Stadium once stood.

But the future looks grim for the stadium, which still has an old record player in the press box, a tube-powered PA system and many other nostalgic elements from past decades.

In late 2009, Seattle Center and Seattle Public Schools, which owns the stadium, reached a tentative agreement to tear it down. The memorial wall would be moved and saved.

For years, Memorial Stadium was home of the Thanksgiving Day game. When high school sports were the biggest draw in town, that game consistently packed in more than 10,000 fans. Read more about that tradition here.

Here’s a brief history of Memorial Stadium events, compiled by Mulady in 2006:

1944: City begins transfer of ownership of Civic Field to Seattle School District.

1946: Grandstand of Civic Field demolished in preparation for new Seattle High School Memorial Stadium, to honor local youths who lost their lives in World War II.

1947: Stadium dedicated in November.

1948: President Harry S. Truman speaks to a half-filled stadium in June.
In November, the first “wide-audience” television broadcast is beamed to nearly 1,000 viewers around Puget Sound. They see a high school football championship game between West Seattle and Wenatchee.

1951: On May 29, War Memorial Shrine bearing the names of 762 Seattle schools graduates killed in World War II is dedicated.

1962: School Board leases Memorial Stadium to Century 21 for World’s Fair.

1963: Seattle Public Schools files suit against Century 21 for failing to return the stadium in satisfactory condition.